The Workshop on Working Memory Resources in Language Processing and Acquisition aims at encouraging the scientific debate on the role of working memory in all aspects of L1 and/or L2 processing and acquisition. Many studies have proved that working memory plays a crucial role in both typical and atypical language acquisition (and especially language acquisition by children with language disorders, such as Developmental Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment) and typical language processing, such as in the accomplishment of particular syntactic and lexical tasks. Furthermore, many studies report that WM plays an important role in the process of learning a second language too.

In spite of this rich tradition of studies, however, many aspects of working memory involvement in language processing and acquisition are still under investigation. In general, the precise role of working memory in language acquisition is not fully understood: how is working memory involved in, say, L1 and L2 grammatical structure learning? What is its role in the implicit learning processes underlying L1 acquisition? Which linguistic computations can be considered ‘complex’ from a working memory point of view, in addition, is still largely speculative and often a matter of a priori theoretical choices. More specifically, while it is acknowledged that working memory resources are involved in syntactic computation (production and parsing of syntactic structures), it is not completely clear to what extent working memory is at play in L1/L2 lexical and morphological learning tasks and lexical production (e.g. rapid naming tasks). In general, it is an important task for future research to achieve a more fine-grained distinction among the constitutive components of WM and a more precise characterization of their interplay in language acquisition and language processing.

The goal of this workshop is to provide a context for discussion on these and other open questions on the crucial relationship between WM and language processing and acquisition.

Workshop to be held in conjunction with the XLVII Conference of the Società di Linguistica Italiana (Salerno, September 26-28, 2013).

Call for Papers:

We invite submissions of communication proposals on any topic related to the themes of the workshop. Abstracts (in PDF format) should be submitted for anonymous review through the workshop’s EasyAbs submission page:

Abstracts should be no longer than two pages (including examples and references), in 12-point type, Times font, single line spacing, and 2.5 cm margins. The abstract should include the title and three keywords/phrases that best describe the content of the abstract. It should NOT contain any personal information (e.g. name of the author(s), affiliation(s), address, etc.).